How does Injectable Anesthetics help in Dental Procedures

[Nancy Parker]

Local anesthesia is used in dentistry to ensure that your patients do not feel extreme pain or discomfort during the procedures, while they can continue to remain conscious for the dental procedure. This can be administered via gel drops, spray, and injections. However, the most common type is injectable anesthetics. This employs a needle, cartridge, and syringe. While the cartridge and needle are not typically reusable, the syringe can be reused in most cases. An estimated 300 million anesthetic cartridges are used each year in the United States.

Injectable anesthetics follow the principle of numbing, as it selectively targets specific nerves and ensures that they do not transmit pain signals and communicate them to the brain. Depending on how long the procedure will last, the dose of anesthesia can be controlled to ensure that pain block lasts. Usually, the standard dose of an injectable anesthetic will last for up to eight hours. Not only will it be effective during the procedure, it will also ensure that the patient will have relief for a few hours after. If the procedure requires it, this does can be increased to cater better to the needs of the patient.

Local Anesthetic Injections

There are two types of injectable anesthetics that can be used, depending on the procedure to be performed. A block injection might be used to numb the whole section of the mouth. For instance, the left side of the upper jaw can be totally numbed for fixing a dental bridge. Alternatively, an infiltration injection can be used to numb a specific area like in the case of a root canal treatment or extraction of the wisdom tooth. Before administering the injection, a numbing gel can be used so that the patient does not feel the pinch owing to the injection. There are many anesthetic products available to help you choose the right one for your patient.

Make Procedures Easier

In most traditional injectable anesthetics, non-buffered lidocaine with epinephrine is used. However, this relies of the patient’s metabolism to let the effects of the anesthetic act. This could take anywhere between 5 to 15 minutes. By switching to pH-buffered lidocaine injections, the dentists can save time, saving the 10 to 15 minutes that is wasted to let the effects of the anesthetic set. The pH-buffered anesthetic sets much quicker, sometime even less than two minutes. The dentist will have the option of adjusting the pH of the anesthetic, which allows quicker procedures. Not only does it better the patient’s experience, it also allows practitioners to plan their schedule better.